Air Force Secretly Moves New Titan 4 To Launch Pad

CAPE CANAVERAL — Under tight secrecy, the Air Force moved its first giant Titan 4 to the launch pad Saturday in preparation for the unmanned rocket's planned maiden liftoff this fall.

The 204-foot rocket, which has the same cargo capacity as a space shuttle, rolled from an assembly building at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to launch complex 41 in less than two hours.

Air Force officials imposed a virtual information blackout on the event. The news media were provided Air Force photos but banned from photographing new launch vehicles.

The only comment came in a brief, prepared statement by Air Force Secretary Edward Aldridge, who called the rollout an important milestone toward the Pentagon's goal of having assured access to space.

When the Titan 4 roars from the pad in October, it will become the heavy- lift workhorse in the military's rapidly expanding fleet of unmanned rockets that will cost taxpayers $14 billion in coming years.

The Titan's mission will be to carry spy and reconnaissance satellites into space for intelligence gathering operations. Among the most important are making sure the Soviet Union complies with nuclear arms control agreements.

Other spacecraft launched aboard the Titan 4 will eavesdrop on Soviet communication traffic and help track ship and troop movements.

The Pentagon gained approval to buy 23 Titan 4's for $4.1 billion after the shuttle Challenger disaster and failure of several unmanned rockets left the military without a way to get spy satellites into orbit.

The Titan 4's are built at a Martin Marietta plant in Colorado and can ferry a 10,000-pound payload 22,300 miles above the Earth, the standard orbit for many military spacecraft.

About four Titan 4 flights will originate each year from Cape Canaveral through the 1990s with other missions blasting off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Another unmanned rocket -- the medium-lift Delta 2 -- also is scheduled to make its first flight from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in October. The rocket's main cargo will be a series of navigation spacecraft called global positioning satellites that have some surveillance capabilities.